My favorite part of the Arcanist / Crusader is you have Heaven's Fury + 2 Bombardment skills so you're pelting enemies to death from above. The caveat is that you absolutely need the Spellscourge set or else the build doesn't work at all. Keep that in mind if you want to pursue it.

Crusader Skill layout:
Fully max Heaven's Fury, Bombardment, & Laws of Valor (the one that gives Crit damage)
Get to 10/10 Hold your Ground, Iron Skin, and Fervor (I have Fervor up to 13/10 but outside of some %damage and speed, this one is not as important)
Divine Fortress and Indestructible I have at 5/10.

Arcanist layouy:
Fully max Devastation & Maiven's
Get to 12/12 Mirror, Elemental Balance, Inner Focus, and Inferno (the skill next to Callidor's Tempest)
1 point in everything else, though you can put some extra points in Nullification to reduce the cooldown.

As for favorite pet build, I like the player-scaled pets more than the regular summoner pets. For summoner pets, I like the Nature + Necrotic build as you get the most out of all of your pets, and it'd be interesting to see how well the Ghol's set goes with it.

I made a point in the Grimarillion thread that I'll be leveling my favorites further in the game - I'll definitely have 1 Summoner build, 1 Hybrid (either the Reap Spirit one or the Blight Fiend + Rogue hybrid), and a few player-scaled pets one. In addition to the Bombardment Mage, I like all the 2H gunner builds I've made - it's really hard to limit myself to a few since they all have something interesting.

That's a bit off puting about the spellscourge set to be honest. I think i'll stick with nature/necrotic then, could you posting some more info about this one too?
Also any other non-pet build that's fun and not that gear dependent you can think of?

edit: actually, I started a barb/crusader since the new Grimarillion update is here and i'm having tons of fun with whirlwind, will you be giving it a try? Very curious about a build you'd put together for it.

That's a bit off puting about the spellscourge set to be honest. I think i'll stick with nature/necrotic then, could you posting some more info about this one too?
Also any other non-pet build that's fun and not that gear dependent you can think of?

edit: actually, I started a barb/crusader since the new Grimarillion update is here and i'm having tons of fun with whirlwind, will you be giving it a try? Very curious about a build you'd put together for it.

Out of my current builds, the least gear-dependent ones I have are ones where the conversion is built into the masteries. Champion Mastery's Army of None is one of my favorite skills because it really feels like an Army and - unlike other skills - feels really rewarding when you overcap the abilities. 100% Lightning to Aether conversion is built into the Storm Mastery, so all you need is a good Physical to Aether weapon and you're most of the way there.

Any build incorporating the Zenith masteries is going to be fun; Ceno did a wonderful job with these masteries, even if they were designed to be more OP than the regular classes. Since their abilities are very good, they are less gear-dependent than other classes would be, as often weak skills need either gear conversion or massive overcap before they become reliable.

I'd tell you about Oathkeeper and Barbarian, but I'd have to get the expansion first. No ETA on when that will happen, and I wouldn't be able to say anything about the new gear as GDStash won't be there to give a look into anything related to Barbarian.

Out of my current builds, the least gear-dependent ones I have are ones where the conversion is built into the masteries. Champion Mastery's Army of None is one of my favorite skills because it really feels like an Army and - unlike other skills - feels really rewarding when you overcap the abilities. 100% Lightning to Aether conversion is built into the Storm Mastery, so all you need is a good Physical to Aether weapon and you're most of the way there.

Any build incorporating the Zenith masteries is going to be fun; Ceno did a wonderful job with these masteries, even if they were designed to be more OP than the regular classes. Since their abilities are very good, they are less gear-dependent than other classes would be, as often weak skills need either gear conversion or massive overcap before they become reliable.

I'd tell you about Oathkeeper and Barbarian, but I'd have to get the expansion first. No ETA on when that will happen, and I wouldn't be able to say anything about the new gear as GDStash won't be there to give a look into anything related to Barbarian.

I'll take a look at the zenith masteries then, also is FG needed for barbarian though?
So would recommend going with riftstalker/d3 necro or riftstalker/outrier, which one was more fun to you?

I did not make a Riftstalker + D3 Necro build, so I don't know what you're referring to. Riftstalker + Outrider is a lot of fun, especially when you get the bonus ability that puts totems all over the place. I haven't built that one from scratch, so I won't be of much help when it comes to leveling.

Skeleton Overlord (D3 Necro + GD Necro) Equipment List is completely revamped! I'll redo the pictures for the skill distribution once I get the opportunity, but Skeleton Overlord is a build I definitely want to test in both xpac content.

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NOTE: All builds that I post are directly created with GDStash (all valid prefix/suffix combos) for the purpose of testing and demonstrating what is possible.

Along with Zunimassa Witch Doctor + Storm, this was one of my first build concepts, spanning out to last September. It had served me well getting through initial testing, but multiple nerfs to several items forced me to reimagine this build somewhat. The concept was a simple one: convert 100% of both Physical and Fire damage to Chaos for full Chaos Swarmlings, with help from 22/12 Hellfire Hellhound and tanking assistance from the Core Dweller. Dracarris was first used in DaShiv's Pyromancer, where he used Demolitionist's Fire abilities to reliably proc the Hellspawn ability and grant further Fire damage to pets. Here we focus on the Chaos side of it, as thanks to Earth's buff, we don't just convert pet Fire to Chaos, but player damage as well. The main skill we use to proc this ability is Earth's Meteor - an ability with massive flat damage which if we could bring to 16/16 (maybe by reducing Core Dweller investment), we would. Meteor is bound to Time Dilation - the skill cooldown activates when the Meteor lands, so as the Meteor descends, you can activate abilities like Blood of Dreeg and Core Healing and have their cooldowns reduced as well.

This build gets a nice buff with Fallen Gods: As you can see in the screenshots, you only have around 2650 OA with permanent buffs + Blood of Dreeg; that's not very reliable to Crit bosses and 25 RR is bound to Crits (Black Star and Fiendgaze Tome). The Mystical Vestments of Severed Faith gives you an extra 100 flat OA, and while you do lose about 140% Pet Damage, that is partially made up by the 21 flat Chaos damage given to your pets. Pierce Resistance is hard to come by on this build, so the new Chestpiece is especially welcome since it grants that resistance. As an additional bonus, you gain about 100% Chaos damage yourself, which will definitely help getting the kills necessary to proc Hellspawn. Now that Fiendgaze Tome converts 100% Cold to Chaos damage, you can also use the Bonescavenger Gloves for even higher player OA and more pet damage to partially offset the loss of Fiendmaster. As for other equipment, the nerf to Voidwhisper rings means that you now have to equip both rings in order to have full 100% Physical to Chaos conversion; Peerless Eye is surprisingly one of the best options for the amulet even with the boon of All Skills amulets you have access to; and the head gear, while surprising to see from a pet build, has the best combination of resistances, damage bonuses, and skill points - even more valuable as the usual sources of Satyr craft are all taken.

If playing AoM, Reaper Leggings are necessary to get 26/16 Blade Spirit, replace gloves with Shadow's Grasp and Shoulders with Vileblood Mantle to keep 22/12 Circle of Slaughter

Blade Spirits were the first of Grim Dawn's player-scaled pet skills, and it would do thie compendium injustice to leave out a build showcasing this skill. Blade Spirits were revamped around the 1.1.0.0 patch; instead of them being temporary and your ability to summon them relied on Cooldown Reduction, they are now permanent pets where you can increase the number of blades summoned via item modifiers. This build was a relic towards the old way of building for them through the Blind Assassin set, whose claim to fame revolves around Off-hand levels of CDR despite the set involving DW weapons. The CDR may not affect Blade Spirit summons now, but it does greatly help this build's other abilities - most notably access to 3 healing abilities: Pneumatic Breath's access to great flat DA and extremely short cooldown, Demon Hunter's Shadow Power and the second node that grants ADCTH (normally not anywhere close to 100% uptime, but now only has 0.5s downtime thanks to this build's CDR), and a second Demon Hunter heal that also grants a short burst of immunity.

Blade Spirits consist of three damage types: Cold, Piercing, and Bleeding. As Bleeding is incapable of being converted, this build uses a double damage set-up of Pierce and Bleeding, converting 75% of Cold to Pierce using the Pack of Trecherous Means and Bladetwister Signet. Normally, double damage builds tend to lag behind single damage builds, but the Blind Assassin Set thankfully includes both damage types and the devotion set-up allows for grabbing T3s for both Pierce (Unknown Soldier) and Bleeding (Mogdrogen the Wolf), as well as their respective RR's. The conversion also allows for the Nemesis pet to be largely single damage, maximizing its output. Pierce damage is most heavily used with high WD attacks - especially since Lethal Assault's flat damage is made up of 75% Cold to Pierce and 50% Acid to Pierce. Bleeding damage is used in 22/12 Circle of Slaughter and Blade Spirit + Rend. With the Bleed ticks combined with the build's three healing skills, this is an incredibly sturdy build - well capable of handling the roughest content.

For equipment, D3's Elusive Ring gives great damage to both Pierce and Bleeding as well as over 80 flat OA, and the 2-pc bonus in the Shadow's Set gives 120% Pierce damage, which is vital for this build. The question becomes: what should the Grimtools give up to obtain it? The first piece is the boots - 50% Slow Resistance and Piercing damage alone makes it perfect for the build. The second slot is a far trickier option: the AoM build uses the gloves thanks to its 100 flat OA, but it's a tall order to ask to give up Grasps of Unchained Might and its flat RR on Ring of Steel. Shoulders can be another option, but note that you lose your 26/16 Blade Spirits by taking it, which means roughly 15% DPS loss by leaving Blade Spirit at 24/16. The pants are probably the best options, especially since you get an additional 50% Slow resistance. Chausses of Barbaros makes a compelling option, however, as the Bleeding damage, 100 flat OA, and the 150% damage proc nearly closes the damage gap. The other placeholder slots are shown for having similar resistances so you can see how the build fares defensively. Mind you, Demon Hunter has a passive that gives 20% to all Resistances, and that doesn't include the standard Purified Salt / Imbued Silver on the rings. If you need more OA, Seal of the Night is a potential option, but having the extra Armor is hard to pass on.

The Wizard was a class I was slightly stumped on how to use its pets to their advantage. Elemental damage and no stackable RR meant I had to pick something that synergized well with it while not hogging too many skillpoints. Magic Weapon, Astral Presence, Diamond Skin, Unstable Anomaly, Energy Armor and Archon are all wonderful passives for the Wizard to incorporate, and that doesn't go into its two pet skills. Once Grimer introduced the Kunai relics as well as multiple D3 equipment, multiple +1 to Wizard skills gear made playing Wizard much more enjoyable. The items shown above paved the way to get 22/12 Magic Mirror, chosen because the items synergized together much better than going for 22/12 Hydra. It just so happened that the remaining slots made it possible to get Bone Spirit to 21/12, and since you only need Bone Armor + second node, Frailty, and Final Service, you have many skill points to spread among the Wizard's multiple skills.

It was honestly a bit surprising I was able to get this concept to work as neither Wizard nor D3 Necromancer have any healing abilities and there is no ADCTH to be found. Instead, I take advantage of both classes' great circuit breakers (Unstable Anomaly is like Blast Shield with massive flat absorption and Final Service is like Menhir's Will without the weapon requirement) and all healing devotion procs and use Wizard's great CDR to its fullest potential. Giant's Blood is attached to Unstable Anomaly because it is the most potent healing with the longest cooldown - you want to make sure the massive regen happens in conjuction with the massive flat damage absorption. Dryad is bound to Meteor as it is extremely reliable. If all else fails, Mark of Divinity gives you one last stand to flee for the other survivability skills to cool down.

As for offense, Mirror Image is great for a 22/12 skill, but you must be wary that you have to wait for the previous images to wear off before casting it again or else 3 of the images die off and you're left with a wasted cast and 1 Mirror Image. Hydra is okay, but the fact that they are immobile make it difficult for a player to use while constantly on the move. Maximum Bone Spirit is cast by pressing the button four at a time - any more than 4 and the first Spirit you summoned blows up on command - not bad if you're intending on attacking with your pets only. All of this leads to a bit of spacial preparation so that you have your Hydras and Bone Spirits ready, but the payoff is more than worth it.